The Robo Soviet Saga Part One: Exodus
by Canderous Ordo
Summary: Robotnik takes over the former USSR, gaining control to a wealth of resources and the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Now, world domination may not be so farfetched. Better summary inside.[SxA, KxR]
1. Prologue

Hey, folks. I'm still alive. For the time being, I've run into a severe case of writer's block on Anaconda. I guess writing along the lines of counter-terror operations was harder than I thought. My apologies to anyone waiting on that story. Since this is a new series, I'm turning to the old Cold War theme for inspiration; massive armies, nukes, and large scale battles. As usual with my stories, modern firearms will be used along with current events, current politics, and existing and near future technology. Hope you like.

On a side note, some revisions have been made. Most of them are chronological in nature, although there are some that affect the backstory. To those who read the first version, it may serve you well to browse through and reread the first three chapters.

Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog, and all related characters are property of Yuji Naka and Service Games Inc. All rights reserved.

_The first decade of the new millennium saw the Earth survive a handful of near apocalyptic crises: Perfect Chaos, the ARK Incident, Metal Overlord, and Black Doom to name a few. It also saw more governments ousted than any other in history. Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Taiwan reunited with China, and Korea reunified, but by the end of the decade, a war-fatigued world was not prepared for what would happen next. On 1 December, 2011, exiled former Soviet mad scientist Dr. Ivo Robotnik marshaled up his fleet of four egg carriers and troop transports, slipped into Russian airspace using a curtain of heavy electronic jamming and electromagnetic weaponry to disable the early warning radar systems, and blindsided every city, major military installation, and industrial complex in the Russian Federation. With an estimated strength of a little less than 1 million ground forces and aircraft, and Russia's military scattered and disorganized, it only took 16 days for Robotnik to completely nullify the military and oust the government, and by the middle of 2012, he had begun his march on the other breakaway republics of the Soviet Union with the immediate goal of reuniting the Soviet Union under his rule. One by one, the former republics capitulated. Estonia, Lithuania, and Georgia, NATO members by that time, even revoked their membership, and began to toe Robotnik's line. Although the rest of the world suspects foul play, nobody can do anything about it short of an act of war. By early 2013, the only five former republics not yet overrun, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, are standing by to be overrun. And thus, a new war is about to begin..._

_Homestead, Florida U.S.A. Old Homestead Air Reserve Base, 'The Strip'. March 4, 2013. 1145 hours..._

Homestead Air Reserve Base was home to the 482nd Fighter Wing and its subordinate units until 2010, when the latest round of base closings claimed the South Florida base along with a handful of others. Sonic and Tails, seeing the opportunity to use the unused runway and empty hangars for their own equipment, quickly petitioned the governor of Florida to allow them to take ownership of the derelict airfield, which was granted within 24 hours of the request. In the year and some change since Dr. Robotnik assumed dictatorship of the New U.S.S.R., Sonic and Tails made so heavy use of the base they decided to move out of their apartment and take up permanent residence.

Now, the only activity right now is Tails continuing to work on a new aircraft within a hangar's vast expanse while Sonic listened intently to a CNN report regarding the invasion's refugees in an office not too far from it.

"Right now, up to two million refugees from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are scattered across about fifteen camps in Poland." The reporter stated amid a live backdrop of tents and a mass of humans and anthropomorphs alike. "And as the refugee population continues to grow, the camps' grim states of sanitation, food, and supplies continues to worsen. The International Committee of the Red Cross is now openly looking for medical volunteers anywhere to help stem and eventually improve condit--"

"Son of a bitch." Sonic swore under his breath as he turned off the TV and left the room. How could Robotnik do this? A few months after the doctor came into power, stories started filtering out of the New Soviet Union about his gulags; 'political reeducation' camps whose brutality would've made Joseph Stalin proud. Political prisoners, resistance members, pretty much anybody who was foolish enough to openly oppose his new government would soon find themselves, and their families snatched up in the middle of the night, and shipped somewhere in Siberia to work at a labor camp.

And yet, Sonic couldn't do a thing to stop it.

In the past six months Sonic and Tails made three attempts to infiltrate Moscow and eliminate the doctor. However, Robotnik had turned the city into a fortress with heavy anti-air and anti-ground assets, and the two were lucky to have escaped the New Soviet Union alive.

And now, Sonic could do nothing but seethe as the doctor's droid armies marched on virtually unchecked.

Sonic walked into the base's lone occupied hangar, to find Tails downing the last of a bottle of water. At eighteen years old, the Gemini-tailed fox had grown as tall as him, and still had his passion for aviation and mechanics. "Tails, how's the 'bird'?" He asked.

The younger fox gave a thumbs up. "Just finished installing the new radar about half an hour ago." With a smile, he added. "Hey, it won't have the tank busting reputation of an A-10, but we should handle ground threats much better now."

The "bird" Sonic was referring to was the Hurricane, originally built by Tails solely as an air dominance fighter three years ago to combat Robotnik's fleet of Egg Carriers with precise, crippling surgical attacks. Agile, stealthy, and fast with unique switchblade variable geometry wings, the Hurricane was well-suited for its original task. However, since the doctor took over Russia and the majority of the rest of the former Soviet Union, an abundance of ground threats manifested themselves in the battle, and became a problem as the Hurricane had no anti-ground capabilities whatsoever. After the duo's third unsuccessful foray into the New Soviet Union, Tails made the decision to install a new multi-mode radar fully compatible with all of NATO's air-to-ground weapons systems from unguided gravity bombs to anti-ship missiles, to the vaunted Joint Direct Attack Munition, to even the anti-ship missiles converted for anti-Egg Carrier use. Furthermore, Tails had installed a heavier 27mm Mauser cannon to complement the aircraft's incumbent 20mm Vulcan cannon, and both can be fired independently or in linked mode.

As an afterthought, Tails warned. "But, even with the upgrades, I suggest not going straight for the throat again. Not while we have no on the spot support with the UN holding NATO on a short leash about starting open war with Eggman."

"Since when has the UN been able to make NATO stand down?" Sonic countered. "Back in 2003, it didn't stop the US and Britain from forming a coalition to invade Iraq. Right now, the only thing keeping NATO, hell, any country from open war with Eggman is politics. Frankly, with the world as it was back in '10 and '11, Eggman timed his plan perfectly."

Tails had to give him that one. The Republican Party lost the blessing of the war-weary American people after spending the better part of the first decade of the new millennium at war in Iraq. Although all objectives were achieved and insurgencies minimized, some pundits point that conflict the main reason the Republicans lost control of the White House, and now the less hawkish Democrats are enjoying a period of great popularity.

"In case you missed it, the new UN Secretary-General is Canadian." Tails reminded. "As such, the UN will have a much bigger influence on NATO than it did in the past."

"... I guess..." Sonic muttered and glanced down at his watch. 11:55, it read. "Hey, wanna lock up and get some lunch? It's time to relax for once, man."

"Cool."

_Langley, Virginia USA. CIA Headquarters. 1430 hours..._

"It's confirmed, Mr. Director. Dr. Robotnik's Iron Curtain has entered Kazakhstan."

From the corner of the CIA's satellite surveillance room, paramilitary agent Rouge the Bat watched as the realtime satellite images continued to stream onto the room's big multiscreen display. The college town of Semey, called Semipalatinsk in its Old Soviet days, looked completely occupied with two divisions, and three other divisions looked to be racing south and west.

"Curiously, Semipalatinsk was the first city to be captured by Robotnik's forces." An analyst said. "Astana is reporting its military bases and outposts are being bombarded with heavy artillery fire, airstrikes, and cruise missiles."

Rouge felt it was time to make her presence known. "Hold on a second. Wasn't Semipalatinsk a former nuclear testing site?" Rouge asked.

"That's right." Director James Wilhelm, a former career Army officer pushing fifty, nodded. He had earned his worth within the 313th Military Intelligence Battalion, eventually becoming the battalion's commander before retiring.

"Also, Semey was home to a handful of ICBM missile silos before they were all destroyed in 1994." The director further explained. "However, I don't think the testing ranges there are reason enough to leave two divisions there. There's gotta be something else there..."

"Mr. Director! We got President Palmer on secure." Another analyst announced, holding up the secure line.

"I'll be right there. Everyone else, keep an eye on Semey." Wilhelm took the receiver from the analyst, and after a deep breath to relax himself, put it up to his ear. "Yes, Mr. President?"

"Mr. Director, I just received a call from Chinese Premier Ma Ruikai." President Palmer's Southern drawl sounded over the line. "You remember those old Soviet missile silos near Semipalatinsk, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"The Chinese have intel that Robotnik's forces have rebuilt one of the silos and is loaded with a ballistic missile. Do you know about this?"

Wilhelm had to bite his tongue to keep the shock of this revelation in. The retired Lieutenant Colonel quickly scanned the satellite image of Semipalatinsk, but came up blank.

Palmer laughed humorlessly. "I thought you wouldn't, not relying completely on satellites anyway. Beijing has had agents on the ground for the past seven months in and around Semey, and they barely spotted the sites. Apparently, Robotnik's had sleeper cells inside Kazakhstan for a few years preparing for something like this. According to the Chinese, they were very careful to camouflage the site. The agents were able to infiltrate the control center and confirm the birds are aimed at targets in China before they were killed. Right afterwards, Ma got served notice from Robotnik, said if the Middle Kingdom tried a stunt like that again, he'll launch the nukes. And until those nukes are gone, the PLA isn't going beyond its borders."

"So, I guess they're relying on our newfound cooperation, huh?" Wilhelm surmised. Taiwan's peaceful absorption into the PRC in early 2010 amid sweeping changes of Beijing's policy effectively erased the biggest obstacle hindering Sino-American relations, and the two world powers even participated in a naval exercise off of Wake Island later that year. There was even talk going around about making China an honorary member of NATO. "Anyway, my paramilitary is stretched thin, with everyone locked in to deploy to Germany--"

"Excuse me, Mr. Director?" Rouge piped up. "Can I make a suggestion?"

"One moment, Mr. President." Wilhelm put down the receiver. "What is it?"

"What about Sonic? Right now, he's at the point of frustration over not being able to hit the home run ball. Suggesting that he blow up a nuke might persuade him to stop going on his suicide missions to Moscow."

While Wilhelm thought about it, she gave him more to think about. "Come on. He's completely independent, can't be traced to any agency, or to the government. Eggman knows this, too."

"Alright, I'll suggest it to the President." Wilhelm picked up the receiver. "Mr. President, how about Sonic? You know he'll take any opportunity to inflict some sort of damage to Robotnik."

Palmer thought for a moment. "Hmm... I don't like relying on freelancers, but he may be our best bet. However, should he fail, I want someone ready to go."

"Yes, Mr. President." With that, the line went dead, and Wilhelm hung up the phone. "Alright, Rouge, I'll contact Chinese Military Intelligence to try and pinpoint this silo. Then, I'll declassify the images myself, and you're free to send'em out."

"Thanks, Mr. Director." Rouge took her leave. "Sonic, I hope you appreciate me doing this..."

_Homestead, Florida USA. 'The Strip'. 1645 hours._

Tails looked up from inside the Hurricane's opened cockpit, hearing Sonic walk inside the hangar from the office. "How's it looking?" He asked.

Sonic groaned. "Just for the record, I hate politics. So much time is spent yapping about making something happen instead of doing it. I've had more than my fill of CNN for one day. Supposedly, the UN is close to passing some type of new super alliance resolution, supposed to bring all permanent members of the Security Council under it."

Since Robotnik had either killed or imprisoned Russia's legitimate government, and nobody in their right mind would recognize his, Germany had taken Russia's place as a permanent member of the Security Council.

"Really? I didn't know China and the US warmed to each other that much." Tails commented.

"Things aren't all gravy between Washington and Beijing yet. That's why the UK and Germany are the linchpins in this effort." Sonic sighed. "God, I hate politics."

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" A familiar feminine voice called out.

"We're in here, Ames." Sonic answered.

Moments later, the pink hedgehog stepped into the hangar. No longer the obsessive fangirl of her adolescent years, at 23 year old, Amy had blossomed into an intelligent and beautiful young woman, currently in college majoring in sports medicine. She had long since retired her trademark red dress, and now wore a pair of cutoffs with a pink Puma baby T-shirt, and a pair of trendy Timbaland boots, and had allowed her quills to grow out to her mid-back. As he expected, any extremes in her personality had mellowed out over the years, and the two grew to become close friends. However, Sonic was always reluctant to take their friendship to the next level for the sake of protecting Amy. Eight years ago during the ARK incident in and around San Francisco, his death had seemed a very real reality until some quick thinking helped him escape that capsule in space. Although he had other close calls, that one made him swear that as long as Robotnik was still a threat to world peace, he couldn't afford to get romantically involved with anyone. Even at the cost of hurting himself and the ones closest to him.

"Hey, you two!" Amy let out a cheerful greeting before turning fully serious. "Hey, Sonic? Can I talk to you for a sec?"

Sonic looked at Tails for any hint of what was going on. Receiving a blank look back, he sighed. "Fine. Guess what, Tails? You get to watch CNN until I get back." He quipped, gaining a small measure of satisfaction in the fox's groan of protest as he walked out with Amy.

"Um... actually, it would be better if you both heard this." Amy suggested.

Now it was Sonic's turn to groan. How bad could this be? "All right, Tails. You're off the hook. Okay, Ames. Let's hear it."

"Well, I'm sure you two have been keeping up with the news," Amy began after taking a deep breath. "So, you know about the need for aide in Poland."

When Sonic wearily nodded, Amy went on without a beat. "About two weeks ago, I submitted a request to volunteer at the humanitarian mission at one of the camps. Today, I got a call accepting my request. I figure this to be my way of helping fight the good fight."

Sonic just stood there numbly before the shock and awe wore off. "What...the hell..."

"Before you try to talk me out of this," Amy interjected, cutting Sonic off. "I'll tell you right now that I've been thinking about this for the past three weeks, and I can't stand sitting around here doing nothing about what Eggman's doing!"

"Yeah, but what the hell, Amy? When were you gonna let someone know?!" Sonic berated.

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, you're one to talk! The two of you disappear without a trace without warning for about a week only to find out you narrowly escape death trying to get Eggman! You have a lot of nerve talking to somebody about giving notice! Be lucky I didn't do one of your numbers!"

"Hold up! Since when do I need to tell anybody if I'm going on a mission?!" Sonic countered.

"I should ask you the same thing!" Amy retorted.

"Look--" Sonic stopped himself, making a silent ten count to calm himself to prevent anything unintended from happening, then realized Amy had a valid point. "Alright, I see your point, Ames. But, the thing is Tails and I have more combat experience than some sergeants, while you're still green."

"I am _not_ green, Sonic!" Amy challenged.

"Yeah? Ever since we met, one of us had to bail you out of a jam." Sonic retorted.

"Well, what about when Perfect Chaos--"

"We bailed you out."

Amy groaned in defeat and thought of another situation. "Remember Prison Island? I had to bail you out then!"

"Actually," Sonic argued. "Tails had to bail you out when Eggman had you cornered on that carrier, and he was the one who did all the dirty work to get to my cell!"

"Metal--"

"Bailed you out."

When Amy sighed miserably, Sonic decided to get straight to the point. "Look, I won't stop you from going. All I'm saying is I have a bad feeling about this. I don't think Eggman's gonna stop his march at the borders of the former Soviet Union."

Amy allowed a hopeful smile. "Aww, how sweet, worrying about me. If you want, you can come along with me just to make sure."

"Maybe some other time. Right now, Tails and I have other engagements."

The girl's features dampened, then sharpened. "You're not thinking about going after Eggman again, are you?"

When she received no answer, a worried look etched her face, and she grabbed both of his arms. "Sonic, please don't. You said it yourself last time that you didn't think you'd make it back at times. Every time you and Tails head out on one of these raids, I worry myself sick about you two. I... I keep thinking back to the last time," she whispered the last sentence barely loud enough to hear. The memory of Sonic coming back with with his left arm in a bloodied sling caused her eyes to water up with suppressed tears. He had been hit in his left shoulder, and the AK-74's 5.45x39mm round had for all intents and purposes left his arm dangling by a thread. Surgery and rehab had been hell for both of them. Sonic physically, and Amy physiologically. "Sonic, you almost lost an entire limb! What's it gonna take for you to lose before you realize you need to ease up!?"

Sonic groaned. He still felt the effects of the surgery to this day. The memory of the pain from rehabbing that shoulder did not wane in his memories. He lost a little bit of range of motion in his left arm, but not enough make him combat ineffective. Yeah, he had plans to make another incursion into Moscow with the intent of neutralizing the doctor's threat. But, with the pleading look Amy was giving him, he didn't have the heart to tell her.

Fortunately for Sonic, Tails decided to make his presence known. "Sonic! Take a look at this... I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" During their conversation, neither hedgehog realized that Tails had left the two to check their secure e-mail, and was walking back. He held a few sheets of paper in his hands.

Hastily, yet gently, Sonic pried Amy's hands off of him. "What do you got?" The fox handed him the communiques. "This is from Rouge..." he noted. "Eggman's already rolled into Kazakhstan. Wonderful." He muttered dryly before reading on. "Hold on. ICBMs in Semipalatinsk? I thought all their silos were dismantled."

"ICBMs?" Amy inquired, confused.

"Intercontinental Ballistic Missile." Tails clarified. "Apparently, Eggman had sleeper forces in the country secretly rebuilding the silos we helped dismantle. What's more, there's already one that's locked, cocked, and ready to rock. Washington and Beijing think it's there to keep the People's Liberation Army in check. Chinese agents already tried to destroy the launch facility, but failed. Eggman warned if they tried that again, he'd unleash Armageddon."

"So the Chinese tossed the ball to us to see if we can bail them out." Sonic mused. Another failed attempt could mean as many as 50 million lives snuffed out; a real nuclear holocaust. "It's time to make a call." Sonic made his way to the one remaining DSN (Defense Switched Network) phone on the base with Tails and Amy in tow, dialed in the CIA's number then Rouge's extension when prompted, then waited.

"This is Rouge, secure," The bat's weary voice answered after a few seconds.

"You don't sound too happy to hear from me," Sonic joked.

Rouge laughed humorlessly. "Well forgive me if I'm not jumping for joy. It's almost five o'clock, and I'd rather not hang around here any longer than I have to. So, I take it you got the e-mail?"

"Uh-huh. So, what gives? I thought DoD didn't like 'civilian freelancers' meddling in their affairs."

"In this case, President Palmer and Director Wilhelm are willing to make to make an exception. Lemme break it down, as long as those birds are in Kazakhstan, China's not moving an inch outside its borders, and the UN will really need their military power if we want any chance of taking down Eggman." When Sonic didn't respond due to indecision, Rouge added. "Here's something else to think about. I know you've been waiting for a chance to put a hurt in the doctor's forces. That launch site right now is relatively lightly defended, and Eggman's forces will need about a month to get a defense grid online." A beat of indecision. "You were unsuccessful in taking Eggman out with one fell swoop three times already. It's time to think about the long term, Sonic."

Sonic groaned. Yeah, she was right. Another incursion straight into Moscow now would probably mean losing more than an arm. Dead or alive, he'd be no good then. "Alright, fine. Tails and I'll take the mission."

"Great! I'll let... hold on a minute." Rouge dropped her DSN's receiver and looked closer at the large billboard realtime tactical map in the room. There was a gap half the size of Rhode Island traveling east to west currently over northwest China. That gap was caused by none other than Angel Island as it made its orbit in the atmosphere. Rouge picked up the receiver again. "Hey, Sonic? Do you know that Angel Island is about to leave Chinese airspace and drift into southern Kazakhstan?"

"What?!" Sonic gasped. "How long until it reaches?"

Rouge looked up at the display again. "I'd say about another twelve hours. Does Knucklehead even know where he is?"

"Probably not. Look, my plate's gonna be full for the next week. Do you think you can go up there and lend him a hand? Eggman's likely still wanting to get his hands on the ME."

"You are really twisting my arm on this one, Sonic. You owe me one." Rouge allowed herself a smirk. If Knuckles thought he'd never see her again, he was sorely mistaken.

"Thanks. I'll let you go home, then. Out." With that, Sonic hung up the DSN line, and turned to his two comrades. "Change of plans. We're not going to Moscow. We're going to Semipalatinsk. Happy now, Ames?"

She smiled. "Somewhat. Although I wish we don't have to fight this war. You two be careful, okay?"

"I hear ya. When do you leave for Poland?" Sonic asked.

"Tomorrow night."

Sonic allowed himself a smirk. "Then, shouldn't you be packing?"

"Right."

Well, I'll stop for now. If you'd like, you can drop a comment or two in review form and tell me what you think about this. Out!


	2. Cleaning House, Arrivals, and Departures

Alrighty! I'm back! To all Yankees, I hope you're having a happy and safe Independence Day. Remember: **do not** fire any bottle rockets into your neighbor's kitchen window, no matter how much you hate him/her. And don't look directly at the sparkler.

Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog, and all related characters are copyrighted by Yuji Naka and Sega Inc. All rights reserved.

_Moscow, New USSR. Kremlin. March 5, 2013. 1130 hours, local time..._

This time, Dr. Robotnik thought he got it right. As he reviewed his successes over the past year and some change, one key factor remained missing: the Chaos Emeralds. He never bothered looking for them, or banking on acquiring them to augment his power. Instead, he just used good old fashioned military might to subjugate the Russian Federation, as well as the westernmost former Soviet republics. Now he had control of Siberia's recently discovered oil fields and gold mines, and the largest nuclear stockpile in the world. Even after the reductions enforced after the START II Treaty, he still had close to 2,000 nuclear warheads, as many as the whole of NATO combined. Yes, from now on, he would only use the tools he had at his disposal. No more relying on ancient prophecies, no more relying on derelict space-based weapons of mass destruction, and most importantly, finding the Chaos Emeralds was a **secondary** objective now.

The large oaken double doors to his office opened, and the doctor turned Premier turned from the window to smile maliciously at the expected arrival of his 'guest'. Two of his infantry droids, each with an AK-74M assault rifle in one arm, were manhandling a middle-aged human into the room, and deposited him unceremoniously onto the floor with a thud before stepping back towards the door to assume their guard, their weapons at port arms.

"So glad you can make it, Anatoly Alaxandrevich Petrov." the doctor greeted sarcastically. "I've been expecting you for the past few months."

"What can I say? Traffic here in Moscow was horrible," came the insurgent commander's snide remark.

"I demand you called my capital Robotnikgrad, its new appropriate name, traitor," Robotnik snapped.

"Oh, you mean the same way you demand the rest of the world to legitimatize your 'leadership' of Mother Russia?!" Despite his dire situation, Anatoly allowed himself a humored chuckle. "Your arrogance is truly unrivaled, Rasputin! Secretary Chairman Nikanova should've had you shot instead of merely expelling you from the country! As usual, history never denotes the potential big blunders."

Mikhail Nikanova was the last leader of the Old Soviet Union, generally well regarded in the West as the one who ended the Cold War. However, in the east, he was perceived as have brought upon the USSR's collapse and the economic misery that followed. When Robotnik was a young scientist in 1985, Nikanova had ordered Robotnik's design bureau, OKB-302, shut down, and the doctor arrested for his heinous experimentation on animals powering drones. Many in the Politburo wanted Robotnik executed, and all data in his design bureau completely destroyed to keep everything under wraps. However, even though Nikanova approved the latter, he figured Robotnik would be a nonfactor if expelled from the country. After all, nobody would be perverse enough to fund his experiments.

"Unfortunately for him, I am able to rectify my mistakes. I have already dealt with everyone who was involved with my downfall almost thirty years ago. And for anybody plotting my downfall now," the doctor motioned for the two droids to resecure their prisoner, and lead him away. "I will bury them. Oh, and don't be so depressed, Anatoly," Robotnik's laugh began low, and escalated into a malicious chuckle. "Soon, you'll see your family again... somewhere in Siberia."

_Angel Island, orbiting along the southeastern Chinese-Kazakh border. 1250 local time..._

"Well, here we go." Rouge muttered with a small degree of trepidation before starting her final approach on the island in a CIA Cessna turboprop aircraft. The island itself still wore the scars of Robotnik's Death Egg launch bases, though the flora was beginning to reclaim the abandoned sites. Almost six years had passed between hers and Knuckles' last meeting, and although it's been longer since she made any attempt on the Master Emerald, she didn't think the isolated single-minded echidna would forget such hostilities easily. She was expecting a cool reception at best.

She found a rough runway presumably used by Sonic and Tails when they visited the island within the dense jungle of the Angel Island Zone, touched down, and dismounted. "Well, knowing Knuckles, he'll be all over this site within an hour. Instead of coming to him, I'll let'em come to me."

The sound of fauna nearby and footsteps sloshing through a nearby stream instantly put her on guard. Evidently, she wouldn't have to wait that long. Wanting to gain the upper hand in case of a hostile encounter, she moved out of the clearing of the rough airstrip towards the stream, sticking to the flora's abundant cover or concealment. However, once there, she found no sign of his presence, not even wet footprints. Irritated that she had allowed the echidna this small victory, she stealthed back to the airfield, only to freeze halfway when she heard more sounds from that direction. Not wanting to risk any of the fauna eating away at any of the expensive equipment inside the Cessna, she unholstered her Beretta M9 pistol from her hip, burst from the woodline back to the turboprop aircraft... only to meet silence. Rouge huffed, and holstered her sidearm. This was really pissing her off. Through with playing games, she called out. "Alright, Knucklehead! You win! You can come—wha!!!" Before she knew what happened, somebody had gotten behind her, and applied a full nelson on her. It wasn't tight enough to cause pain, but her initial struggles to get free were futile.

"Let this be a lesson," Knuckles began, his voice very smug behind her. "On this island, the flora and fauna work with me, and stealth is my greatest ally, and your worst enemy. So next time, do not try to sneak up on me."

"Stealth is your greatest ally, huh?" Rouge repeated mockingly. "Is that why Sonic came on this island almost ten years ago and kicked your ass in a fair fight?"

"What?!" Knuckles was too shocked at her audacity to even fire a retort. In fact, too shocked to keep his lock held, and Rouge took advantage, wriggling out, and flooring him with a textbook one arm shoulder throw. Shaking off the small pain in his back, he sat up. "Shrewd. Attack mental before physical."

"Sun Tzu's Art of War. Defeat the enemy from within. And that's why I'm a Third Tier Combatives Instructor at the CIA, Knucklehead." Rouge said, smiling down at him triumphantly.

"Uh-huh." Knuckles lashed out with his legs, completely surprising Rouge since he wasn't known for attacking with his lower body, one leg striking the lower part of the front of her legs, the other hitting just below her knees; sending her sprawling to the ground next to him; a whirlwind drop toe hold. "Learned that one from Sonic." He said while getting up, not bothering to hide his satisfaction. Something was not quite right about this fight. If Rouge was here for the Master Emerald, they wouldn't be trading barbs and takedowns this lightheartedly. He decided to get right to the chase, but stayed defensive. "From the BDUs you're wearing, seeing that you're armed, and the fact we're not fighting for real, I can conjecture you're not here for the Emerald. So, why are you here, bat girl?"

"You're right about one thing, Red." Rouge admitted, sitting up cross-legged. "I'm not here for the Emerald. Hell, I've given up on treasure hunting completely. You'd think after two millenniums, all the treasures to be had were already discovered." She simpered. "But down to business, do you know where we're at?"

Knuckles blinked in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean down below. Do you know where your island's at?" When the echidna gave her no response, she answered. "Within the next few minutes or so, you're about to enter southeastern Kazakhstan."

Knuckles shrugged. "Your point is?"

"My point is about eleven or twelve hours ago, Eggman began his invasion of Kazakhstan!"

Knuckles looked at her as if he just saw a ghost. "What?! You're kidding!" Somehow, he knew she wasn't.

"I wish I was, Red. Trust me. Can you maybe change the course of the island?" She suggested.

"No can do. The Master Emerald decides where this island goes, when it goes."

"Wonderful... How long until we're out of Kazakh airspace?"

Knuckles recalled an explanation Tails gave him. "Probably too long. You see, Tails once explained to me that Angel Island orbits west-east, the same way the earth rotates. The thing is, the island's orbital speed is slightly slower than the earth's rotation, so we're honestly looking at days until we're outta here.

"Super..." Rouge massaged her temples with her fingertips, then looked at him, face dead serious. "Then it looks like I'll be spending the next few days here."

"Hold on," Knuckles just noticed something. "Then, where's Sonic? I trust him a lot more than--"

"He sent me." Rouge divulged. Seeing that Knuckles was still skeptical, she pleaded. "Listen, Red, I know you've been burned in the past, but you need to start trusting other people. Hell, if you can't trust me, then please trust Sonic's judgment in sending me here."

A few moments of tension set in as Knuckles' violet eyes pierced her aqua orbs, looking for any sign of deception, and ultimately found none. Finally, he caved. "Fine. I'll allow you room and board until we're out of Kazakhstan. I'm putting you on notice, though: if I catch you anywhere near the Master Emerald, you'll get to see firsthand how far I can kick someone off this island."

"Agreed." Rouge smiled, this one genuine, stood up and extended her slender left hand. "Comrades?" The echidna shrugged and completed the handshake. "Scout's handshake, token of friendship. You use your left hand because it's closer to the heart, don'cha know."

"Really? Didn't know you were a Girl Scout." Knuckles said.

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away." Rouge laughed. "But, that's another story for another time. Right now, we have work to do."

_Miami, Florida USA. Miami International Airport. 1748 hours, Eastern time..._

Sonic, Amy, and Tails thought this would never happen. Here they were, at the airport, about to bid each another farewell as someone departed on a mission. Although that wasn't too uncommon, what was is the fact that **Amy** was the one leaving while Sonic and Tails stayed behind, even if temporarily. For Amy, it meant a new sense of independence, and for Sonic, it meant uncertainty. He wouldn't be there on a dime to get her out of a pinch, and he still couldn't shake the possibility of Robotnik's armies marching across Poland and every other former Eastern bloc nation, AKs blazing.

As the trio sat in Concourse E's food court eating pizza, Amy couldn't help but notice Sonic lost in thought, seeing he had barely touched his share of pizza, and didn't join in a spirited conversation between herself and Tails. Frowning, she nudged his foot with the toe of her boot to get Sonic's attention. "Hey, you've been staring out into space for the past five minutes. Something on your mind?"

Sonic looked up at her and shook his head. "No. Nothing important."

Amy's eyes pierced his, and she frowned again. "Y'know you're a horrible liar, right?"

"Really, it's nothing." Sonic persisted, trying to avert her gaze. Did she really need to press the issue?

Apparently, she thought so, as she excused them both for a moment, grabbed Sonic's hand, and led him to a relatively quiet corner not too far from the food court. "Think you can talk to me now?" She pleaded.

Sonic sighed. "Fine. Aside from the bad feeling about Poland gnawing at the back of my mind, I can't help but feel that I'm abandoning you. Sure, you've been along for many of my battles, but you and I both know you're not a fighter at heart. I... I don't know, I feel like I should be on that bird right along with you and--"

Amy silenced him with a long, elegant finger to his lips, allowing a small smile to grace her face. "No you don't. We all have our own way of fighting this war. You and Tails take a more direct approach. Besides, you're needed elsewhere, and I don't think you'd do much good where I'm going."

Sonic thought for a moment, then realized she just took a potshot at him. "Wait, hold up! Are you calling me insensitive?"

She laughed. "Nope. You said it, not me! Seriously though, you'd be bored to insanity within a week."

"Unless Eggman decides to march across Poland." Sonic muttered, more to himself, but loud enough so that Amy could hear. "Look, I know I ain't your keeper, but..." Words failed him, and he just shrugged his shoulders.

"You'll just have to trust me this time the same way I trusted you and Tails to come back alive this time, and all those other times, Sonic." Amy said.

Sonic blinked in realization. So that's it? He still didn't trust her with her own safety? So many years have passed since she followed him on a mission, and she had grown a lot since then. "I trust you, Amy."

"Thanks, Sonic. That means a lot." She said and embraced him in a brief, gentle hug. "Now, you think you can eat now?"

"Sure." Sonic smiled, and the two walked back to the table to find Tails checking the time on his watch.

"That took long enough, you two." Tails said. "It's five minutes 'til six, now. The flight boards in another five minutes. We should head down towards the gates."

"Great. So much for actually eating." Sonic grabbed a slice from his plate and stuffed as much as he could into his mouth, and threw away the rest.

Amy grabbed her carry-on bag, and led the two males down to her gate. It was a new experience for the three, she being the one going off potentially into harm's way, and they were understandably at a loss of words for the long walk down to the gate. By the time they got there, the flight was already boarding first class passengers. "Looks like this is it, guys."

"Yeah. I gotta admit, it's gonna be a long six months without you, Ames." Sonic said. Wow, six months without Amy. In the past, he would've been elated to hear that news. However, now that she'd mellowed out, she was very likeable... almost to the point of Sonic lifting his self-imposed moratorium on romance. Almost. It was a necessary evil, he repeatedly told himself.

"Oh! There's something I want you to have!" Amy exclaimed, rooting through her carry-on bag, produced a stack of developed pictures, and handed them to Sonic. "I forgot to give'em to you guys before I left 'The Strip' yesterday, so here ya go!"

"Ah, our vacation pics from Hawaii last month! So, you finally got'em developed, huh?" As he flipped through them, one picture made him both faintly blush, and give Amy an evil look. "Oh, I still got something for you for this pic." He showed a funny looking pic of him and Amy at Waikiki. Apparently, Amy didn't think his smile was big enough for the camera, so she had started tickling his neck, resulting in him comically doubling over away from her while giggling. "Y'know what? I'm keeping this one. Make sure nobody else sees it."

"Y'know I still have the negatives, right?" Amy smirked when Sonic gave her another death glare. "If I wanted to, I can make as many copies as I want."

"Oh, you would blackmail me..." Sonic mumbled. A quick look at the gate let him know the rest of the flight was boarding. "Looks like the rest of the bird is boarding. Please stay alert about the news."

"Will do." The two shared another hug, this one a lot more heartfelt than the last. "You two take care of yourselves." She said when they seperated. "I want someone to blackmail still when I get back."

"You too." Sonic watched her board the plane, bound first to Atlanta, then to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and finally to Warsaw. A few moments after she was out of sight, he spoke again. "Well, let's get to 'The Strip'. We've got some planning to do..."

&&&&&&&&&&&&&

And that's another chapter knocked out. I gotta admit, I don't think I did too good a job with Amy's departure emotionally, but you guys are the judge. Lemme know what you think! Roger, out!


	3. Origins, and New Toys

Wow! I deeply apologize for the three-month gap in updates. To be honest, writer's block got me good. That, and basic army BS that I'm not trying to start to get into. At any rate, things should be rolling a little smoother now... except for the fact that I'll be in the field for 11 days starting Monday. Ah, the suck...

Just a couple of warnings: I'm gonna start incorporating Zulu Time, since that's what most deployed armies use. For those that don't know, that's Greenwich Mean Time. Also, the next two or three chapters will focus more on the Knux/Rouge pairing than Sonamy. Don't worry, people. It'll get here. ;

Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog, and all related characters are copyrighted by Yuji Naka and Sega Inc. All rights reserved.

_Angel Island, orbiting over southeastern Kazakhstan. March 7, 2013 0900 hours, local time, 0300 Zulu._

Despite the radical change of scenery, Rouge managed to retain somewhat of a routine, managing to continue her early morning regimen of practicing kickboxing forms and a light jog along the "coastline" of the island. Despite being some 20,000 feet above sea level, the island's air pressure at its low and high points compared favorably to the relative elevations on the surface, the jungles on the island still retained its hot and humid air, the deserts of Sandopolis were still scorching hot, and even more peculiarly, the streams and rivers on the island never dried up. The island itself seemed to have its own biosphere complete with its own weather patterns, possibly a result of the Master Emerald, she reasoned.

The one thing that has struck her as most peculiar was the surprising amount of autonomy Knuckles had apparently given her. In her first forty-eight hours on the island, the two had seen each other only two or three times by coincidence. That unnerved the bat a little, knowing that Knuckles would make sure he knew where any addition to the island outside of Sonic, Tails, and Amy were at any given time. Resolving to out what the deal was, she took flight to the Master Emerald's shrine.

Once there, she noticed something even more peculiar: the echidna wasn't there with the Emerald.

"Odd," Rouge surmised. "If I'm even remotely close to this island, he's all over the stupid jewel. Here, he allows me to stay on the island until we're outta Dodge, and he leaves it wide open--"

Realization hit her. This must be Knuckles' way of testing his trust with her. Either that, or he had succumbed to a fit of insanity and went AWOL on his duties. In any case, the Master Emerald was not her objective.

Then again, was it ever an objective for her?

Sure, she coveted it the first time she and Knuckles crossed paths. However, after having the Emerald's true power explained and later witnessed during the ARK Incident, she realized she was dealing with a force that was best untouched. Sure, she often blatantly mentioned wanting to take the Emerald in front of the echidna's face, but she never followed through on her threats. No, the Emerald was never her objective, but just a cover-up she fed to herself and Knuckles so much a couple of times she was starting to believe her own lie. She often fell into that trap as a spy, most notably during the ARK Incident, but now she resolved not to give in to her own snares.

Quite simply put, Knuckles fascinated her. Here he was, living alone on an island that can become very remote at times, guarding the Master Emerald which nobody save Sonic, Tails, Amy, Robotnik, Shadow, Knuckles, and herself knew and/or cared about the Emerald. In Rouge's mind, the Emerald imprisoned him here, damning the echidna to a lifetime of lonesomeness except when the jewel was either stolen or shattered, which forced him to leave the bindings of this island. Sure, Sonic donated him a TV and a satellite dish to help alleviate boredom , and a satellite phone so that he'd have some contact with the outside world, which was probably limited to Sonic and his friends. And sure, Sonic and his group made occasional visits to Angel Island when it orbited close enough to Miami. However, this island still seemed like the world's largest solitary confinement prison cell. And yet, the echidna is able to keep his sanity. What kept him waking up each morning to face another day is a question she might be trying to answer for a while.

It wasn't long until Knuckles lumbered his way across the crude bridge, hauling what looked to be, after closer inspection, three olive grab-colored turret stands on his broad shoulders. Thinking it better to offer assistance regardless of the futility of the gesture, she ran to meet him halfway.

"Need a hand with those?" Rouge asked, though both knew the futility of the offer. Each turret stand weighed about one hundred pounds individually, and her strength was in her legs. Unless she could flip upside-down and walk on her hands, there was nothing she could do.

"I appreciate the offer, but both of us know you wouldn't be able to carry one on your own. Normally, these things are supposed to be a two-person carry anyway," Knuckles added as an afterthought while the two crossed the bridge. "I haven't seen a lot of you since you've been here. What have you been up to?"

"I decided to recon the island by myself," The bat answered and withdrew a crude map of the island she drew out of her cargo pocket. "I've marked off every ground approach to the shrine and managed to plant claymore mines at major chokepoints around the island and..." She trailed off when she saw the echidna shake his head. "What?"

"Sorry, but I think you just wasted your time and resources." Knuckles stated. When Rouge looked at him in askance, he elaborated. "You completely over thought this, didn't you? At most, all who's guarding the Master Emerald is myself, Sonic, Tails, and sometimes Amy; he won't need to assemble a large force anywhere on this island. My guess, he'll helo in a small force, maybe platoon strength, as close to the shrine as possible, try to overpower us, then make off with the emerald. Or, he may try to just grab and run."

Rouge cringed. It wasn't so much she over thought the situation. She also forgot Robotnik was still trying to secure Kazakhstan down below. He'd be hard pressed to divert any extra units to Angel Island. "Okay, you got me there," She admitted begrudgingly. "So, what's your plan?"

"Simple. Set up camp around the shrine. Which reminds me, I found a weapons cache that Eggman's forces left behind when his forces withdrew after the Death Egg was destroyed." They stopped at the foot of the shrine's steps, and Knuckles dropped the stands down on the weathered masonry. "I hate to say this, but I'm gonna need some help hauling everything back."

"Wow! You actually need my help with something?" Rouge smiled. "Well, looks like someone's starting to get accustomed to having company."

Knuckles snorted. "Yeah, yeah. It's just this once, alright? So temper it, and let's go."

"Fine, fine."

The trip led the two treasure hunters to the dilapidated remnants of Dr. Robotnik's Death Egg Launch Base. For Rouge, the half hour trip was painfully quiet. The only thing out of Knuckles' mouth was the occasional navigational direction. Deciding to curb that pattern, the bat took initiative.

"Talk to me, Red," She said simply.

"Watch your head," Knuckles replied plainly when he ducked underneath a fallen crossbeam along the dimly lit path. "How's that."

"You know what I meant." Rouge sighed exasperatedly as she ducked under the obstacle to keep up with him. "Listen, we've been at it for years, and yet we hardly know each other. We agreed to be comrades from here on out, remember?"

Knuckles stumbled for a rebuttal, but only managed to squeak out. "Well, yeah, but--"

"But?"

Clearing his throat, he only managed to whisper. "I'm not a good conversationalist around women."

Rouge giggled. "Oh, so you're shy? Aww, how cute!"

Knuckles crossed his arms, walking a bit faster to hide the blush that threatened to surface. "I didn't say that." He spat out.

"Aww, wait up, Red." Rouge chuckled, having to range-walk to catch up to him. "I was only teasing you! C'mon!"

Knuckles waited up just long enough for Rouge to catch up. He still had his arms folded across his chest, still with a stern look on his face. Rouge again broke into a fit of giggles. "You really need to loosen up, Knuckie!" She sputtered out.

"Gimme a chem light." Knuckles requested, sounding as surly as possible.

"Oh, come on! You can at least say 'please'."

The lonewolf echidna sighed, closed his eyes, did a silent ten count in his head before opening them and said just as surly. "Gimme a chem light... please."

Rouge could only shake her head in disappointment at her comrade as she took one out of her cargo pocket, and flipped it to him. Moments later, the area was bathed in a fluorescent blue light when Knuckles snapped it on, and the two moved on.

It wasn't long until the two came across a half-opened blast door leading to another room. A gaping hole in the room's ceiling permitted ample sunlight to fill the large room, revealing a nearly undisturbed arms room lined wall to wall with weapons racks filled with Soviet-era weaponry.

"This is it." Knuckles said, dropping the chem light and leading the bat inside. "Look for RPGs, shoulder-launched SAMs, and full-sized machine guns. I could care less about the assault rifles and carbines."

The two glossed over the weapons in silence for about five minutes before Rouge spoke again. "Y'know, I really am serious about wanting to know you, Red," She said sincerely.

Knuckles took a PKM machine gun off its rack and began its inspection, completely oblivious of the fact Rouge was talking to him. If Sonic didn't give him those weapon maintenance classes, he'd be completely lost here. He had managed to set the weapon down on its bipod and open the feed tray cover when Rouge crouched down to eye-level directly in front of him.

"What?" He asked.

"I said I really want to know more about you," She repeated.

"Oh, this subject again?" Knuckles carped. One look into her azure blue eyes told him she was not kidding around. "You won't drop this until I tell you, will you?"

"Never!" She boasted, then quirked a grin at him. "I am a trained interrogator, y'know. If you don't tell me, I have other ways of getting it outta you."

"In that case, all you're getting outta me is my name and social security number."

Rouge laughed. "What's this? Knuckie's got jokes?"

"Call me that again and you're getting nothing outta me!" Knuckles warned.

"Alright, fine."

Preparing for what was to come, Knuckles went back to inspecting the machine gun in front of him. "So, what do you want to know?"

Satisfied that her curiosity of the echidna would finally be satisfied, she went back to the weapons racks. "Um... let's start with why are you the only one living on this island?" She sensed the trepidation inside him and suddenly wished she didn't push so hard. "I'm sorry. You don't have to answer if--"

"Forget it." Knuckles steadied himself with a deep breath. Comrades, comrades. "You remember the Station Square disaster of 2003, right?" Rouge slowly nodded, and the echidna continued. "During those events, Sonic, myself, Tails, Amy, and a couple others came across a lot of revelations about what happened to my clan..." He then related all the events to her, Tikal, Chief Pachacamac and the ancient Knuckles Warrior Clan, Chaos, and the whole tragedy that befell them all.

Rouge stood there in wonderment, speechless for a moment. "So, only a handful of you clan survived?"

"Yeah, and I'm a direct descendant of the survivors," He answered plainly

She picked up an SA-14 shoulder launched SAM launcher, and began to test its electronics. "But, shouldn't their numbers have thickened by now?"

"Here's where it gets depressing." Knuckles began. "Yeah, there were a lot of us living in a city on this island when I was born. If you looked to the west of here, you would've seen a crater. I don't remember much about my life before the day that everything changed, but I remember it with frightening clarity. It was the summer of 1995, the day fire came down from Heaven."

"Knuckles?" Rouge questioned, concerned. "Your people were..."

The echidna swallowed a lump in his throat before continuing. "My guess is my people stopped keeping vigil of the Master Emerald, and it was the Gods' judgment of them. I lost everything that day... my family, friends, hell, I even lost their memories. A meteor impact knocked me out, and I suffered amnesia for it. I have no memory of my family whatsoever."

"Wow, Red. I'm sorry I made you did that up." Rouge consoled. Wow, he lived through all that, and still finds the strength to face the new day. Now, she had a deeper respect for him than before.

Knuckles laughed humorlessly. "What's that saying again? 'Shit happens'? Anyway, I guess that's why I keep watch over the Master Emerald so religiously."

"How do you still drive on like this?" Rouge asked.

"I've asked myself the same question more times than I can count, Rouge. I guess in the end, the answer is I have no other choice," Satisfied with the weapon he was inspecting, Knuckles sat it aside and searched for another PKM.

"I can't even imagine, Red. You're a good person. You shouldn't have to live like this," Satisfied with the shoulder launched SAM, she set it down beside the PKM Knuckles just inspected and set out to find another weapon.

"So, what about you, Rouge? Were you always a jewel thief?" Knuckles asked.

"Nope!" She picked up another SA-14, and began its inspection. "Although I do have a thing for jewels, the jewel thief angle was just an alias. My parents were both in the army, so I moved around all the time, though I did spend most of my time at Fort Leonard Wood. To make a long story short, both my parents died in Desert Storm, and I was bounced from orphanage to orphanage across St. Louis until one day I ran away, and made a living pickpocketing on my own for the next three or four years. It was tough living, those years...

That is until one day I happened to pickpocket a CIA field operative by the name of Scott Dowell while he was on leave. A real pit bull, he is. In hindsight, that day changed the course of my life for the better. After a lengthy foot chase where I pulled out all the stops on misdirections, fence climbing, and ducking in and out of cover and concealment, the guy caught me. Strangely, instead of turning me in to the police, he took me in under his wing, and citing that I was just trying to make a living, gave me a chance to 'use my natural abilities for the benefit of your country'." She chuckled, remembering thinking Dowell's proposal was rather ludicrous at first. "That offer opened the door for a lot of opportunities for her. Through the CIA, I managed to earn a bachelor's in psychology and make an honest living."

'Seems like Dowell is a compassionate character," Knuckles commented. "So little people willingly show that nowadays. Where is he now?"

Rouge sighed. "Here's where my story gets depressing. Scott was working as a liaison with GRU during the time of Eggman's invasion at the end of 2009. Moscow was captured too fast for him to escape. He's been listed as MIA ever since."

"Sorry to hear that. Seems we both ended up getting bad deals," The echidna lamented.

"In a way Red, you're the only comrade I have left, and I don't want to lose you too."

"Rouge?" Knuckles started to question but was silence when she shushed him.

"You were forced to start anew when you lost some of your childhood memory. Well, I wanna wipe the slate clean with you as well. From here on out, our past conflicts are wiped clean. Whaddya say, Red? To a new start?" With that, she held a hand out to him.

Knuckles looked into her eyes, momentarily becoming lost in those ocean blue orbs. There was nothing but absolute sincerity in them. Just a desire to help ease the loneliness of both their souls. Smiling a genuine smile, he took her hand in his, and squeezed it. "To a new start."

_Bagram__ Air Base, Afghanistan.__ 1500 local time, 1030 Zulu._

Almost ten years since NATO forces led by the US invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban from power, the alliance still maintained a presence of 15,000 troops in the landlocked country. Most of them stationed at the airbase, which is now commanded by an Afghan officer, located less than forty miles northwest of Kabul. Once the US decided to exponentially increase its financial aid for the still fledgling Afghan government in early 2008, the country's security and economic situation stabilized once again. It was envisioned that all US cadre on the base be exclusively Air National Guard. However, with the evacuation of a staging base in Uzbekistan, a number of Army and Marine battalions had set up headquarters here.

It is here in the headquarters of the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, that Sonic sat inside Headquarters Company's arms room filling out paperwork in triplicate for the weapons, ammo, and gear he would be issued while Tails, his gear and aircraft armament already issued, sat in a chair by the staff duty desk, watching with some sympathy as his friend massaged his sore writing hand. Both had already been to their mission briefing, which provided no information that they already knew, and had requested equipment for the mission accordingly.

"Seriously, man. Do y'all actually file any of this paperwork, or do y'all just like chopping down trees?" Sonic sighed in exasperation, handing the armorer an impressive stack of forms and sticking his pen back into the built-in pen holder on the left sleeve of his ACUs(Army Combat Uniform). He stared in wonderment at the digital grayish/green and tan pattern on the new uniforms. The Army tried to copy the Marine Corps' ideas and this was the best they could come up with? The Army tried a jack-of-all-trades camo pattern, and ended up with a master of none.

The armorer, Sergeant Jeremy Washington, a strikingly young and stocky looking noncommissioned officer or NCO, just laughed. "To be perfectly honest, we do, until you turn everything in, then it just gets shredded. Now, lemme take a look at what you're getting... no shit! You're getting all the good stuff!" The NCO got up from his chair and went over to the weapons racks. "Alright, M4A1 complete with an Advanced Combat Optical Sight, forward hand grip, laser sight, and sound suppressor."

"Hold on, Sergeant. Wouldn't a silencer slow my rounds down enough so they won't penetrate metal?" Sonic asked as he received the weapon from Washington for inspection.

"Not this one," Washington grinned. "If you look closer, you'll see that suppressor is not an ordinary one. This one is able to keep the weapon's report at a minimum while still keeping enough stopping power to pierce armor. That, and you're getting AP rounds. Apparently, it's still on trials at R&D, so the durability might still be suspect. Make your stealth shots count."

"Right. What else do I have?"

"You're also getting an experimental XM10 prototype bayonet," Washington said

Sonic just looked at the blade presented to himself, then at Washington blankly. "What the hell good is a bayonet gonna do against metal?"

Washington just laughed. "I knew you'd say that. This is no ordinary bayonet. For one, it's made out of a very strong titanium-tungsten alloy. And two," He pressed a small button on the knife's hilt and walked over to a block of steel riddled with punctures. "Recent advances in ultrasound technology have allowed us to incorporate an ultrasound generator small enough to fit into the blade. The resulting vibrations along the bayonet's edge allow it to cut through anything, even metal," With that, he lodged the activated bayonet hilt-deep into the steel block with relative ease. "Like a hot knife through butter."

"...Wow..." Was all that Sonic could say.

"Keep in mind that the blade will get very hot if left activated for a long time, so watch yourself," Washington added as he extracted the bayonet, turned off its ultrasound generator, and placed it within its special heat resistant sheath. "Alright, all that's left are your dual mode night vision/thermal goggles, and that's all I can give you. Ammo's at the ammo point. They're expecting you. Good luck."

"Cool. Thanks for everything, Sergeant Washington," Sonic nodded, and collected all of his gear, and made his way out of the battalion headquarters with Tails.

"Alright. This seems simple enough," Tails commented. He and Sonic had already loaded ammunition for the Hurricane and their person respectively, and were peering over a tabletop-sized satellite image of the target complex.  They had drawn up several plans and proceeded to pick holes in each of them until both agreed on a lowest risk plan.  "I'll orbit above the complex, provide any air support that's needed while you go in and disable those nukes."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. Just don't fall asleep though; you're my insurance policy. If I get into a jam, I need you to hit the lights, and open the front door for me."

In other words, Tails thought, destroy the nearby power station to cut the power and ultimately the lights to the site and blow open the bunker's door of the complex to aid his escape.  Intel suggested the site was still too "new" for a redundant power grid to have been installed yet.  It would take quite some time to restore power should the power station go offline permanently.   Also of note was that there was a heliport and a motor pool in close proximity to the bunker's door.  "Right.  Don't take too long though.  Even with conformal fuel tanks, you're looking at little more than half an hour from take-off to bingo fuel." 

Sonic moaned.  Somehow he didn't account for the Hurricane's endurance.  Advanced as it was, it still ran on jet fuel, which the aircraft was limited to finite capacity of.  There was an uncomfortable silence between the two before he came up with a solution.  "Alright, so I'll just run out ahead of you with say a fifteen minute head start. Then, you'll supercruise over to the objective and radio in when you get on station.  Meanwhile, I'll enter through this air vent at the surface, and take it slow until you radio in.  That'll be my cue to get crackin' and blow shit up.  What d'you think?"

Another stretch of silence followed during which Tails tried to shoot the plan down anyway he could.  In his mind, he found a handful of ways it could crash and burn, but not as spectacularly as the other plans drawn up.  "I'm not saying it's foolproof, but I can't think of anything better.  We'll go with this, and adjust fire on the way—oh, you think we should let Amy know we're heading out?" He added as an afterthought.

Sonic mulled this for a second, and then shook his head. "If she knew we were moving out, she'd stress over us until she heard from us again. In this case, I think it's best to leave her in the dark. If we survive, I'll take the full brunt of her wrath."

"Wouldn't that be like trading one death for another?" Tails chuckled.

"Maybe so," Sonic admitted. "Anyways, we're rolling out at 11:30 tonight. We'd better get some rest."

Damn... I really cannot end chapters well. As I said earlier, I'll be out in the field until the 28th, so I might not get started on the next chapter until then. As usual, sound off and lemme know what you think. Canderous, out!


	4. Breaking Arrows

**Whoa, writer's block is somethin', huh? More than a year and a half had passed without an update. I apologize to anyone and everyone who was and still is waiting for an update of this story. I ain't trying to bore y'all with an explanation of what I've been doing, so here's Chapter 4. **

**Oh, and be advised. I did tweak some parts of this story. It may be worth a look to reread the first three chapters. Another thing, there's a lot more action here than anything else. Don't worry, more romance will come. And one more thing, this one is quite longer than the other installments. Make sure you got some time on your hands before jumpin' in. Enjoy!**

_Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story aside from the plot._

_UN Camp Salvation, fifteen miles east of Lublin, Poland._ _March 7, 2013. 1900 Zulu, 2000 local time._

The several United Nations' refugee camps that dotted the eastern Polish countryside were typical tent cities; several columns of large white tents with shower trailers dotting the perimeter. Port-a-johns that offered an oh-so-pungent aroma when the septic trucks came by to clean them everyday were strategically placed between the columns, diesel-powered stadium lights illuminated the camp after dusk, and four 500kVA diesel generators provided enough power to sustain power and heat for the entire camp. Even though the smell of the septic trucks, however rancid they reeked, was not enough to make one miserable, it was a totally different story if one of the generators became inoperable.

Unfortunately for Amy Rose and the rest of the crew working in the medical tent, the generator that supported them suffered a mechanical failure, and had been down for the past hour while mechanics fumbled around in the freezing rain and darkness trying to diagnose and fix the problem. The remnants of the insulated heat had long since been exhausted, and the internal temperature was dropping to uncomfortable lows. The staff had just finished issuing extra blankets to all the bed-ridden patients inside the tent, and was now huddled up together trying to keep warm.

However, a sense of premonition had Amy more worried than the steadily dropping temperatures inside the medical tent, and she had a good idea whom it centered around. It was bad enough that Sonic and Tails willingly threw themselves into harm's way, but why couldn't they tell her when they did? She guessed he didn't want her needlessly worrying while he did his thing. If he only knew how futile a measure that was.

The generators suddenly rumbled back to life, and the lights and heat with it though Amy hardly noticed even as everyone dispersed and the sudden influx of light burned through her dilated eyes. She was so oblivious to her surroundings she didn't even notice one of her coworkers attempt to get her attention until she felt someone pinch her cheek, though not hard enough to cause pain, and she snapped back to the real world with a start.

"Thought you were comatose there, chick! You alright?" A cheerful English-accented voice owned by a female fox barely out of her teens tilted her head at the older woman.

"Yeah, Kirsten. I'm fine… hey, when did the power come back on?" Amy blinked in surprise as she stood up from the plywood floor and began to unwrap the blanket from her person. It had gotten considerably warmer inside the tent.

Kirsten grinned. "About ten minutes ago. Wow, you must've been really lost in though!" The two steadily picked their way through the network of tents that actually made up the medical tent until they made it to the small break tent.

Amy had plopped down onto a chair and laid a head down with a sigh. Kirsten frowned. "There's no use in losing sleep over Sonic and Tails, y'know. Whatever they're doing, they'll be alright!"

Amy laughed. "Gee, am I that transparent?" Talk about role reversal, she thought. Just two days ago she had a similar conversation with Sonic about needlessly worrying. Maybe she should start practicing what she preached.

"Not really, but it's no secret in the UK that Sonic and Tails have stepped up their campaign against Robotnik since this whole thing started. My guess is they're either getting into something or about to, am I right?"

Amy nodded. After a silent spell, she looked up at the vixen again. "Do you have any loved ones in the military?" She asked.

"Me? Nah, not now. Though when I was little, my dad was a Harrier pilot in the Royal Navy, so Mum and I had to move around a lot. I remember back when I was about five when his ship, the HMS _Illustrious_, deployed for Operation: Southern Watch, my Dad would call home and get a rise out of my older brothers about patrolling southern Iraq and blowing loads of stuff up in dramatic fashion on the speaker phone. Although looking back at it now, he exaggerated a lot of it for show," Kirsten chuckled a bit. "Anyway, Mum didn't buy into my Dad's bravado, and was still spooked. Y'know what my Dad told her?"

"What?"

"Don't worry about things you can't control," Kirsten finished with a smile and poked her arm. "So, don't!"

"I know, but it's not that easy!" Amy laughed and swatted away her friend's marauding finger. "If you look around us, everything is a reminder that a war's about to happen, and a lot of people we know are about to fight it. Friends, loved ones, everyone... alright, fine! I'll stop thinking about it," she relented after getting a look from Kirsten. "Really! I will!" She insisted, laughing.

"Straw's cheaper," Kirsten grinned and pulled Amy up by the arm out of the room. "C'mon, chick! Let's grab our ponchos! I think a little small talk over a hot meal in the mess tent'll take your mind off your worries."

_Somewhere in Kazakhstan, en route to Robotnik's secret missile base 100 miles west of Semipalatinsk._ _March 7, 2013. 2015 Zulu. 0115 the next day, local time._

The air around the Kazakh Steppe seemed to permeate with scorched earth, even after almost twenty-five years since the last nuclear detonation occurred. Since Operation: First Lightning; the first Soviet nuclear detonation in 1949, to the site's last test in 1989, 456 nuclear tests had been conducted here. The place holds the same infamy with the US's Los Alamos site in the respect that each country's first nuclear detonation occurred there.

Sonic had been slowing down gradually since passing the 50th parallel, until he had reached the outskirts of the site. The harsh cold winds of the Kazakh Steppe continuously buffeted his face with dust, forcing him into his neck gaiter and ballistic goggles. Now, he was moving at a light trot, his weapon at the ready. From his position he could faintly see the ventilation shaft through the grainy luminescent green view of his NVGs, or night vision goggles. He hadn't run into any enemy patrols on the surface yet. He didn't expect to either, as extensive patrols would've been a big tip-off that something was up. He had no idea how the Chinese managed to discover it. He had his opinions how, but smartly kept them to himself.

He had reached the raised lip of the grated shaft when he suddenly dropped prone below the platform. Was that a patrol just now? A quick peek above confirmed his suspicions, and he slipped back down. Now, what to do? He spotted three no more than 200 meters out, and they didn't seem aware of his presence yet. But, he still had to open the vent and rappel down, which would take time. In the end, Sonic decided it was safest to engage the patrol now while he still had the element of surprise. He crept back up to the top of the incline, shouldered his weapon, and acquired his target. The vital areas of Robotnik's bi-pedal infantry bots were very similar to humans and anthropomorphs alike; head and body shots generally incapacitated them in one shot at range. Knowing this, Sonic aimed at the rearmost sentry, rotated his selector switch to semi, centered his sight's red dot on its head, and squeezed the trigger. The armor-piercing tungsten-alloyed round whispered out of the silenced weapon and easily passed through the sentry's thin head armor, the kinetic energy virtually shattering all the electronics inside the head region and the disabled sentry collapsed to the ground in a heap of sparks and oil. Not missing a beat, Sonic quickly acquired the middle sentry and fired, this time hitting center mass where the bot's battery would be and it fell lifelessly. Adrenaline in full effect, Sonic targeted the point-man, who had began to scan the area for him. Just when it acquired him, Sonic fired. This time his aim wasn't as precise as before, the round damaging the mech's leg which forced it to kneel. Sonic immediately followed up with another head shot that nearly decapitated the sentry.

After doing a quick scan of the area to make sure nothing else was coming, Sonic sighed in relief and switched on his radio. "Tails, I'm at the vent shaft. What's your ETA to station?"

"Momentarily," the fox answered, his voice breathy through his oxygen mask. "There were plenty of radar contacts along the way, both Kazakh Air Force and Eggman's fighters, so the air battle's still ongoing. Worked out for me well since nobody's gonna find me if they're not actively looking for me. Any problems?"

"Had to eliminate three sentries. As far as I know, the complex still doesn't know I'm here." Getting to a crouch on the grating, Sonic unsheathed his special issue high-frequency bayonet, and switched on the ultrasound generator with a dull hum. He frowned. The knife was a touch louder than he would've liked. "Alright, I'm about to cut the lock and rappel down the shaft. Let me know when you're on station. Out."

He turned off his transmitter, and carefully cut the padlock off the door of the grate. Even the heavy lock seemed to easily shear and melt around the bayonet. In mere seconds, the lock was off, and Sonic turned off the generator and sheathed the bayonet. God, he loved this knife. After another quick 360º scan of the area, he opened the grating door as quietly as he could, withdrew a length of rope from the combat pack on his butt, and tied one end off on the far end of the grating. He almost started his descent he noticed the picture of himself and Amy at Waikiki he kept with him had fallen out from its tenuous hold in his left cargo pocket. He picked it up to look at it again, and smiled. Amy... it would be a long six months without her playfulness to lighten the dark pall the drums of war would inevitably bring. With a sigh, he pocketed the picture again and began to rappel.

"Sonic, I'm on station," Tails stated over the radio, just moments before Sonic reached the bottom of the shaft.

"Roger that. How's your fuel?" Sonic frowned. The vent shaft he was in had terminated into a dilapidated area without lights, forcing him to keep his NVGs on. The ventilation fan below the grated floor he was standing on seemed frozen in time as it had no power, and a door in front of him was left half-open.

"I've got a little more than twenty-five minutes to bingo," Tails answered. Meaning, in that amount of time, he'd barely have enough fuel to get back to base.

"I think we've got a problem here," Sonic sighed. Just in case, he left the rope as-is and forced the door open. "I don't think this place has been fully reactivated."

"What do you mean?"

"The vent shaft I dropped into, this part of the complex is receiving no power," Sonic clarified and moved along the abandoned halls at a light trot.

Tails swore to himself mildly before recomposing himself. "Okay... sorry Sonic, but you'll have to poke around a bit and look for a way inside the main complex."

"I'm way ahead of you on that one. Listen, you said you had twenty-five minutes to bingo, right?" When Tails answered to the affirmative, Sonic continued. "If I don't find a way in with more than twenty minutes left, we abort mission and ninja vanish back to Afghanistan. Got it?"

"Copy that. Good luck, Sonic. Out."

The channel went dead, and Sonic was left to his own devices. Each subsequent corridor looked as lifeless as the first. His internal clock was starting to tell him five minutes had elapsed he saw light at the end of the tunnel, literally. A thin beam of artificial light penetrated out from underneath a door further down the corridor. He closed the distance at a sprint, and delicately tried to open the door normally. It didn't budge. Another reason why he loved his new knife.

"Sonic, I'm approaching twenty to bingo. Any progress?" Tails inquired.

After a quick study of the door, Sonic figured the knife could cut through the bolt of the door. Of course, he could do the old standby and spin dash through, but that would cause too much noise. He had to remain covert. He unsheathed his XM10 bayonet, turned it on, and deftly stabbed the bolt right off. The door creaked open, and Sonic flipped off his NVGs. "Mission is still a go. I'll sync my watch for twenty minutes mission time. Keep me appraised of the situation topside, bro. Out."

The Chinese had managed to procure a floor plan of the complex before the Soviets deactivated the site and sent a copy to the American air base at Bagram. Sonic had spent his premission time committing the whole thing to memory, so he knew where everything was located, even while he searched for a way into the active area. He reasoned that destroying the missiles in their berths would cause significant damage to the complex, so it would be wise for the sake of this conscience that he evacuate any living personnel from the area, starting with any prisoners. The Chinese made the first attempt to neutralize this nuclear deterrent and failed. Whoever was on that mission may still be held here if they were still alive. The holding cells were supposedly close by; he'd still have time to complete his mission before Tails got to bingo fuel. His carbine drawn, he skirted the lit corridors, mindful of security cameras that maybe mounted on the walls.

A short few minutes later, he was at the door leading to the detention block, and he expected this area to be actively defended. He readied his bayonet, affixed it to the carbine, turned it on and with a anticipatory deep breath, stabbed through the door's bolt and kicked the door open. His assumption was right. A service support bot was manning the check-in desk directly in front of him shielded by what looked to be tempered glass. There were two detention wings adjacent to the desk on either side. Sonic had to be quick and accurate. He flipped his selector switch to auto and reflexively fired a controlled burst of three rounds at the mech. One round hit the oil reservoir in its chest, one in the head, and the last one missed high. Already, he could hear metallic footfalls from the detention wings coming to investigate the sounds of the impacts. Seconds later, they appeared in the booth, and Sonic cut them down with a couple of well-aimed bursts from his weapon. Sonic carefully made his way down to the T-junction and peered around the corners. Nothing. Satisfied, he jogged down one hall of holding cells, and finding nothing, jogged down the other one until he came across somebody sleeping on one of the bunks deeper down the wing. He looked Oriental, in his mid thirties, disheveled with a torn desert patterned battle dress uniform on, and bruised. "Hey! You alive?" Sonic said.

The man's eyes snapped open and groggily with a little discomfort sat up. "Huh?"

"Yeah, it's me," Sonic grinned. "You speak English?" If his guess was right and this guy was Chinese, he would be in a world of hurt because his only knowledge of Mandarin was how to say "hello", and "thank you".

"Yes I do," the man answered, with a moderate Chinese accent. "Did my country send you for me?"

"Everybody thinks you're dead, friend." Sonic shook his head and detached the HF bayonet from his weapon. "You were sent to destroy the nukes here, right?"

The man stood up and ran over to the bars. "Correct. I am an intelligence officer from the PLA's Second Department. There were three of us at first. I am the only survivor."

"I see... stand back, I'm cutting the lock." The ultrasound generator still on, Sonic slashed the cell's bolt off with relative ease. God, he loved this knife...

"I thank you for releasing me, but why if nobody asked you to search for me?" The man opened the cell door and stepped out

"Call it a crisis of conscience," Sonic smiled. "I'm trying to make sure nobody faultless dies when I blow the house down. Tell me, Eggman has human proxies commanding his troops, right?"

"Yes... don't tell me you're trying to save that piece of s--"

"Not what you think," Sonic dismissed as the two made their way out of the corridor. "He's gotta have some useful intel for whoever gets him."

"Orders from Washington?" The man asked.

"Nope, call it an after-service. Hey, what's your name?" Sonic queried.

The man stopped to look curiously at the five-foot hedgehog, then shrugged in indifference. "Sun Aiquo."

"Sun... any relation to Sun Tzu?" Sonic asked innocently.

Aiquo laughed. "If there was, perhaps I would have completed my mission the first time."

The two made it to the front desk, when radio chatter coming out of the desk's speaker put them on alert. The two sudden allies looked at each other. "Do you understand Russian?" Sonic asked.

"Mostly, let me listen... not good. The enemy has noticed the detention block has gone silent, and they're sending some security to investigate!"

"Dammit!" Okay, let's improvise some more, Sonic thought. On the floor by the wall in the corner was a padlocked metallic footlocker. "Sun, did you have any radio equipment?"

"Yes... what did you have—oh!" A HF bayonet cut later, the footlocker was unlocked along with all of Aiquo's personal effects, including his silenced Type-95 rifle, tactical vest, NVGs, and his radio equipment. The two then traded radio frequencies.

"Listen, I'm gonna need your help on this," Sonic started as Aiquo donned his gear. When I planned this mission, I didn't think my chances of nabbing one of Eggman's human commanders were any good. Now that you're alive, things have changed again. We'll split up from here. I'll go and attempt to capture Eggman's proxy here... and you're gonna take my C4 and complete your mission. Afterwards, we'll rendezvous in the motor pool, steal a vehicle, load our cargo, and make off into the night. We need to hurry, though. We have," Sonic checked his watch, "ten minutes before my air cover has to return to base—shit! Get down!"

The first sentries entered through the door and upon acquiring their targets, opened fire with their AKM-74s. Sonic and Aiquo taking cover was a moot point; the tempered glass had held up against the standard issue 5.45x39mm rounds. The weapons' unsilenced report was deafening in the closed spaces, and Sonic almost had to yell to hear himself think. Tails... he had to contact Tails. He switched his radio to the fox's frequency and turned on his mouthpiece. "Tails, this is Sonic. Hit the lights and kick the door open! I repeat, hit the lights and kick the door open! Do you copy, over?!"

A beat. Then Tails called in. "Roger that, Sonic. Acquiring targets. Out." And the channel went dead.

"Sun, listen up," Sonic started, "in a few seconds, the power's gonna go out, and this bunker's front door's gonna get blown right off its hinges. Get your NVGs and get ready to move!" Sonic had crawled out of the booth, gotten flush with the far wall, and was now blind-firing around the corner. Aiquo had done the same.

"Do you have any grenades?" The Chinese Intelligence officer asked.

"Nope. Only thing supposed to go boom were those missiles!" A repeating crescendo klaxon sounded throughout the complex. The blood drained from both men's heads in realization; they must be preparing the missiles for launch. Sonic started for his radio, until a loud explosion rocked the complex, followed by another quieter explosion, and the lights subsequently went out along with the klaxon. "Okay, now's our chance! Let's break through this!" With that, the two popped out from their corners and charged down the hall, laying down a barrage of withering fire within the tight spaces while the infantry bots were still trying to engage their night vision. By the time they got to the door, all of them were a pile of sparks, oil, and twisted metal. "Alright, now to find Eggman Lapdog #1..."

_2034 Zulu, 0135 local time..._

Firing off those two AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles definitely lightened the load, Tails thought. In addition to those two, he had also loaded out with four AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missiles, a couple of AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, and a couple of long-range AIM-120 AMRAAM-Ds; the maximum he could carry within the Hurricane's internal weapon bays to maximize stealth. It also limited his options as far as offering air cover for Sonic. A formation of blips on his radar caught his eye. They were air contacts coming from the northeast, too slow to be fighter jets... helicopter gunships. "Sonic, be advised. We've got about five or six gunships inbound vectoring in towards us from the northeast. Probably transport choppers escorted by a flight of Ka-50 Havocs." Robotnik wasn't the type to let perfectly good military hardware go to waste. After his coup d'etat, he had inherited a wealth of equipment from the former Russian military. It was a simple matter modify his mech force's programming to operate this "new" equipment proficiently.

"Roger that, Tails. Any ground contacts?" Sonic asked.

The fox did a quick glance at his Doppler. "Negative. Also, I only have about five minutes of fuel before I have to withdraw, Sonic."

"Copy that. Destroy what you can, then get back to Bagram."

Tails checked his radar. The contacts had just crossed the Kazakh border, and hadn't change their heading. He did some math. The choppers were already in range of his AMRAAMs. He would be cutting it close for his Sidewinders, and for the two remaining contacts? Could he possibly have time to use his guns? Now was not the time to think about that, he thought. He acquired the first two gunships and engaged them both with AMRAAMs. The odds of evasion were almost nil, so he cycled for the next two and selected his Sidewinders. He nervously noted his range-to-target indicator on his HUD or Heads-Up-Display as well as his fuel indicator. Moments later, the first two radar contacts disappeared; the AMRAAMs had hit home. A few more tense seconds followed, and he was in range for Sidewinders. He engaged the next two with those. Now, all he had left were his guns. How well would he be able to strafe slow-moving targets, he didn't know. But, it was worth a shot. As soon as he passed the remaining choppers, he bled off as much speed as he could without stalling, and did a split-S to drop down and match altitude. All he had to work with as far as visual ID were the target boxes on his HUD. Then, the ominous "BINGO" warning flashed on his HUD. Tails had to make this quick. He drifted into gun range of the first, and fired a less-than-one-second burst at the first, then followed suit for the second. The target boxes didn't disappear, but he thought he saw smoke come from both gunships. If they kept flying they'll destroy themselves, he reasoned. Satisfied, and because he had no other choice, Tails climbed to cruise altitude, jettisoned his empty conformal fuel tanks, and vectored back to Bagram. "Sonic, Tails here. I have four confirmed kills and the other two have sustained heavy damage. I've reached bingo fuel, so that's all I can do for you. Sorry, but I gotta return to base. Out."

_2042 Zulu, 0142 local time..._

Sonic scored another head shot, and the near headless mech crumbled lifelessly to the ground. He had already exhausted two magazines, and most of another. Only one full mag was left. Aiquo's voice sounded through Sonic's ear piece. "Sonic, I have found the missile silos, and I am planting the C4. Have you found your man, yet?"

"Nope," Sonic answered as he jogged down the next corridor. "I've run into a helluva time getting to the control room." He turned the next corner and ran a ways before his night vision was washed out by a beam of bright light emanating from a window from an adjoining room. Sonic flipped up his NVGs and massaged his eyes to help get accustomed to normal vision. A flashlight... who would need a flashlight. "Sun, looks like I found my man. You set the C4, yet?"

"Arming the timer... armed. We have fifteen minutes to reach minimum safe distance."

"Roger that," Sonic acknowledged. "Get to the motor pool and get a vehicle, preferably an APC. If I'm not there with two minutes left, leave without me."

"Hopefully, it will not come to that, Sonic. See you in the motor pool. Out."

The flashlight did more than force Sonic out of his NVGs; they made the other end of the beam hard to see whenever he peeked through the window. He duck-walked below the sill to avoid being seen until he got to the door, then unsheathed his trusty HF bayonet, turned the generator on, and stabbed clean through the door's bolt, the heated metal glowing red a few seconds after Sonic deactivated the blade and sheathed it. With his way in achieved, Sonic mulled the proxy commander couldn't possibly be alone; he had to have some personal guard. He stalked to the window on the other side of the door, and donning his NVGs made a quick peek through it. Surprisingly, the commander was alone, standing in his own office, armed with just a Makarov and a flashlight. However, Sonic wanted this guy alive. He had no flash-bang grenades, no CS grenades, no other less-than-lethal weapons. He had to distract him...

Genius struck. Sonic backed away from the door, and raising his weapon, fired a couple of rounds into the window to his left, shattering it, and forcing the flashlight beam toward it. Immediately, Sonic burst through the door, and before the man could bring his pistol to bear, swatted it out of his hand with the butt of his weapon, and followed up with smashing the end of it into the man's chin, knocking him over on his desk. The man recovered, and Sonic slung his weapon behind him to engage in full hand-to-hand combat. "So, do you want to do this the easy way, or do I have to kick your ass some?" Sonic taunted.

The man growled in the darkness. "Do not mock me you filthy American dog!" He swung wildly at the hedgehog, a futile effort. Sonic easily parried the punch, then twisted his arm painfully behind his back, then thrust kicked the back of his knees, forcing the man onto them.

"Wanna reconsider?" Sonic asked truthfully. A loogie in his general direction gave him his answer. "Goodnight, then!" A firm butt stroke to the back of the man's head later, he was out cold. Sonic rifled through his combat pack for his 100mph tape or duct tape as its normally called, and began taping together the man's hands and feet. Completing that, Sonic radioed for Aiquo. "Sun, I got our man. How's our exit?"

"Clear," the Chinese Intelligence officer answered. "The bunker door has been completely blown off its hinges. Apparently, most if not all the engineer mechs are at the power station trying to jury-rig a solution."

"Works for us," Sonic answered. I'm heading over. Out." With that, he hefted the skinny man over his shoulders and lumbered toward the exit.

Sonic was amazed he encountered very little in the way of resistance. Why did this place have only a paltry platoon as its interior guard? Then again, those choppers Tails engaged coming from the Russian border must've been coming to bolster the ranks here. He stepped through the rubble up the stairs leading back to the surface and onto a helipad. He scanned his surroundings and found the motor pool just a hundred yards away, but paused when he heard the telltale thumping of a helicopter approaching. Sonic gaped. "Aw, shit. If that's an attack chopper, we're screwed!" He immediately made a dash for the motor pool as fast as his encumbered legs could take him and activated. "Sun, we've got a chopper inbound! Where the hell's your vehicle?!" He reached the motor pool, where a few Russian-made APC were parked, then stopped when one of them, a BTR-90M started up and drove around to him. The back hatch opened, and Sonic dumped his cargo in first, then climbed in himself, closed the hatch and manned the 30mm cannon. Once situated, Sonic checked his watch. Five minutes left. Then, he noticed something else. "Hey, why aren't we moving?"

"We're well out of range of the blasts," Aiquo answered. "If it is an attack helicopter, it will more likely acquire a moving target faster than a stationary one." The incoming helicopter came into view. It was a Mi-17 Hip transport helicopter, which was barely staying in flight. Apparently, it was the only survivor of Tails' intercept run. The chopper seemed to shudder in midair for a few seconds, then the rotors failed and the airframe dropped like a rock onto the helipad where the fuel caught fire and it burst into flames. "We're safe now." Aiquo put the APC into gear, and began to drive off into the night. A few minutes later, the ground seemed to tremor bubble up a bit and a fireball erupted out of the ground as the C4 detonated, destroying the missiles.

A few minutes passed when Sonic noticed something. "Hey, where're we going?" He asked, tiredly. They were heading east. Afghanistan was south, last he checked.

"China," Aiquo replied. "If we attempted to take this vehicle all the way to Afghanistan, we wouldn't make it. The Chinese border is closer, and there shouldn't be much combat on the way."

Sonic looked at him curiously, looked at his still unconscious prisoner, and shrugged. "Do as you like." He then tuned his radio to Tails' frequency and switched it on. "Tails, Sonic here. Mission accomplished, and then some. We got us one of Eggman's proxy commanders."

"Nice, I bet Washington and Beijing will be thrilled to see us now!"

Sonic chuckled nervously. "...Yeah, about China, one of their original operatives was still alive. I got him out with me."

Tails laughed. "Hey, that's just more cool points for us... something tells me you're leading me somewhere. What is it?"

"Yeah, I'm stopping in China first," Sonic answered. "Don't ask questions now, alright. Just get back to Bagram, pack our stuff, and I'll see you in Istanbul. Out." With that, Sonic switched off his radio, and slumped down for the long ride to the border. Well, things didn't go exactly to design but hey, whatever works. He hoped nothing radioactive leaked out of the warheads. Semipalatinsk had been the recipient of too many unwanted nuclear presents, and he didn't want to contribute a donation. Now, he had to figure something out. How the CIA would handle him diverting to China wasn't his problem. What was is how he would break the news of his mission to Amy without her jumping down his throat...

**And, that's a wrap for Chapter 4. Next chapter, we'll check up on Rouge and Knuckles and see how they're holdin' up. Canderous, out!**


End file.
